Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-06-09
PROGRESS IN JAPAN.
HOW THE PEOPLE BEGAN FARMING
ON THE AMERICAN PLAN.

Manufacturing Agricultural Implements
Under Diffculties-Trial of the First
Plow-The Natives Greatly Astonished.
Watching a Moving Machine at Work.
In a few days I received the somewhat
startling notice that the government had de-
termined to adopt my advice, and that in
few days force of native mechanics would
be ready to work under my directions manu-
featuring the implements As was no me-
chanic, and as 1 had always thought had no
mechanical ingenuity, was in a very serious
dilemma To say that could not do it was
to lose all prestige. On the other hand, an
attempt to do it would almost surely end in
failure. 1 consulted with my American
friends and they all encouraged me to 90
ahead and do the best could If there had
been models to work from the initiative ca
pacity Of the Japanese would have been equal
to the emergency, but we had no models for
thu more complex and difficult implements.
However, / concluded that an American
could do anything that anybody else had ever
done and Iaccepted the responsibility, though
with many misgivings. A small wooden
building was put up and divided, one-half for
blacksmith shop and the other half for
wood workers l started in on plows. We
had to take the japanese ingots of steel, the
same as they had made their old swords from,
and presumably the same as had been used to
make the old Damascus blades 1t is the best
steel now made in the world With these
little ingots these patient workers hammered
away day after day as had directed until
the first plowshare was finished. In the
mean time the wood workers had made the
beam and handles from the old oak in the
Yeddo castle gate. When it had been put
together the plow had a very respectable ap-
pearance.
TRIAL OF THE FIRST PLOW.
This experiment had excited a great deal Of
attention from the japanese officials, and l
had received notice that in few days two or
three cabinet officials would be present to see
the plow work. At the appointed time they
came, with good deal of ceremony. and the
plow was successfully tried. The astonish-
ment and delight of the officials were very
great. They invited me to dinner and sent
presents to the mechanics who had made the
first foreign pillow ever constructed in Japan.
Our little shop gradually grew until it became
quite factory. We made everything used
GA a farm except moving and threshing ma
chimes We even made thimble sken wagons,
the thimble being cast at the foundry of the
navy department. l had to guess at the
width of the track, having forgotten the
width of the track of our wagons When
finished they looked well and worked well, but
/ now know that they were four inches wider
than even the old Illinois wide track wagons.
The most difficult task was to make spring
steel fork tines and spring steel teeth for hay
rakes, but we did both.
HEMPEN HARNESS.
In the hurry of this work some oversightS
were bound to be made One was in making
harness. When all ready for that, we found
that there was very little harness leather in
Japan, and there was no time to import it.
What was to be done was very serious
question My mental resources were nearly
exhausted when l remembered having seen
the negroes down south during the war plow-
ing with rope harness. Acting upon that, l
had made POO sets of hemp harness, every
piece i'll the same shape as in leather harness,
and they answered very useful purpose.
There was not piece of leather about them.
as we used canvas for the collars. When
arrived on the ground selected for the farm
found that l had not done with the pillow
question. Some portions of the pasture were
covered with chestnut bushes, and the ground
was full of large roots, so much so that no
ordinary plow could cut them. Ir order to
prepare this ground for blowing, men were
put to grubbing out these roots. At even
the extremely low price at which labor is
paid there soon saw that to grub out these
bushes would be an expensive operation. L
therefore had plow made that could not be
broken 1t was made of wrought steel, cut a
twenty-six inch furrow, and was strong
enough to 90 through any obstacle. To this
pillow we attached nine horses, three abreast,
and with it we went through the chestnut
bushes as though they had been rushes.
When the horses were thoroughly broken and
the plowmen had gained experience, one man
could plow from three to three and one-half
acres per day with this big plow.
THE NATIVES ASToNISHED.
Near to our operations were large old farm
ing districts with a numerous population.
By the time our plows and harrowS were sue
cessfully running the fame of the foreign
farm had spread to these people, and they
came flocking in, whole villages making
JOURNEYS to see the wonderful foreign imple-
ments work With their mode of digging up
the soil with mattock an eighth of an acre
is good days work for man. When the
farmers, who had never seen any other than
mattock tillage, saw this great pillow turning
its twenty-six inch furrow at the rate of
three acres per day they held up their hands
and cried. "W onderful! Wonderful.' Through
the whole of the first year our labor saving
| machinery drew crowds of native farmers,
| some from distance of more than 100 miles,
| and these JOURNEYS were mostly made on foot.
| A greater wonder than the pillow, even, were
| the moving machines. Some of the pasture
| divisions were clear of brush, smooth as a
! house floor, with fine grass for hay. A pair
| of japanese ponies, with a tifty-four inch
| sickle bar mower could easily cut from
| twelve to fifteen acres per day, while with a
| japanese grass knife quarter of an acre was
| a good days work The sight of these mowers
cutting a swath fiftyfour inches wide, as fast
| as horses could walk, took the breath away
| from these simple people.
| DANGEROUS CURIOSITY.
| How the machine did it was the mystery,
as the sickle and bar when work was being
| done was hidden in the grass. Their curiosity
would lead them directly in front of the ma
| chine, in spite of the warnings Of the driver,
| and it was found necessary to have a
| mounted attendant with each machine to save
| the limbs of the curious A corn Shsller was
| another marvel, taking i'll the ears of corn
| and discharging the shelled corn at one open
| ing and the cobs at another. But what struck
| them dumb was self raking harvester. The
construction of that could be explained to
their minds only on the grounds that the in
ventor was wizard and dealt III the super
| natural-H Latham in San Francisco
| Chronicle.
| Piutes showed Under.
A Nevada newspaper says that a citizen